Flood Update

June 19, 2018 4:25 PM By Chris Wood in Focus 253

How Much Protection will we get?

The County Council has released more details about its Flood Alleviation Scheme. It combines traditional engineering solutions with surface water management schemes to deliver increased levels of protection throughout Southwell.

Southwell Flood Forum must be congratulated for the hard work they have done, liaising with the County Council and helping with the technical aspects of the scheme.

Protection Level Set

Costing nearly £5million, the scheme is based on levels of flooding likely to occur once every 75 years. However the flooding of 250 homes five years ago was considerably worse than that.

Based on this, many homes will be given increased protection at the individual property level. The scheme has been outsourced to Via East Midlands to deliver. Site work should start next year with completion by March 2021.

Seeking Further Information

Although further updates are promised, Liberal Democrat Councillors are seeking further information on key issues:-
● How resilient will the individual property protection measures be to torrential conditions such as occurred in 2013?
● How will raised kerbs and new road cambers to retain water on the roads work alongside driveways and dropped kerbs for pushchairs and mobility scooters?
● What are the implications to flood risk of further housing development in Southwell?
● Once the scheme design is finished what are the County Council plans to get feedback, particularly from residents affected by flooding?

By-Pass Pipe Reconsidered

The last Focus reported that in 1994 the District Council granted approval for development on Halam Road on condition that a temporary balancing pond would be constructed in Norwood Park. The pond would be coupled to a new pipe taking water directly to the River Greet to reduce flood risk from Dudley Doy Road, through Glenfields and down to Lower Kirklington Road. The pipe was never completed.

With further development planned along Halam Road, the County Council and Southwell Flood Forum are now reconsidering the original by-pass pipe scheme to deal with the higher run off rate from developed land. However, this is not part of the present scheme.